Hellenic-American Union
Photography Exhibition by Plato Rivellis
The Hellenic-American Union presents photographs by Plato Rivellis with the theme
"The Catholic Chapels of Syros"
The exhibition opens on Tuesday, May 13 at 20:30 and will continue until June 3.
The Catholic Chapels of Syros
From a young age, I visited Syros every year and never missed an opportunity to express my enthusiasm for it. Thus, none of my friends and acquaintances were surprised that fourteen years ago, my wife and I decided to settle permanently on the island. The fact that I am Catholic from both my parents played no role in this decision, although in hindsight I think that perhaps Syros subconsciously represented my ideal for a tolerant society.
When Mariza Daleziou, a friend from Syros and an art historian, suggested that I photograph the remaining Catholic chapels that had been built in Syros before the 19th century, i.e., before the mass settlement on the island of Orthodox refugees from other Greek regions, I immediately saw the opportunity to engage with a new photographic theme (and for the first time in color), to better understand the beautiful parts of my new place and to capture the composition of religious doctrines that coexist harmoniously through places of worship with mixed influences. I owe her a big "thank you" for this opportunity.
In Catholic countries, one rarely finds deserted churches in the countryside. The temples are either the center of a religious community, small or large, or chapels in public or private buildings. However, in Syros, there are several small Catholic chapels to prove that the Greek nature is stronger than religious habits. Therefore, it is not strange that almost nothing can externally distinguish a Catholic chapel from an Orthodox one. If such distinction is possible with the large parish churches due to architectural styles imposed by the doctrines, and mainly Orthodoxy (it is characteristic that deviations from the Byzantine style are not customary in Greece), in the case of the Aegean chapels, Orthodox or Catholic, the architectural style of Aegean houses has prevailed. After all, the houses, as well as the chapels, are part of the rocks, the bare mountains, the oaks, and the heather, simultaneously their climax and extension. Thus, the Greeks, whether Orthodox or Catholic, could not ignore either the landscape in which they grew up or the houses they built with their own hands.
However, where many things change is when one enters these chapels. Here, the religious identity is clear. The Byzantine typikon, which sets a very strict framework for religious depictions and decor in Orthodox churches, does not have authority here, thus allowing the imagination of the lay faithful to be free and sometimes unbridled. Almost no interior of a Catholic chapel resembles another. Some mimic the large churches, attempting to copy their grandeur. Others adopt from the beginning the humility of their size, while there are also those that resemble extensions of domestic reception areas.
The photography adhered to a few principles of simplicity. A small, although good, camera, a slightly wide-angle lens, without a tripod and without artificial lighting. A bit more daring was the choice to adopt a black and white version for the exteriors of the chapels and color for the interiors. I believe this contrast highlights the feeling a visitor has when moving from the minimalist Aegean landscape to the Baroque aesthetics of the lay devotion of the Catholic faithful. After all, the color version of the blue sky, the cyan sea, and the white lime easily risks leading the viewer into sweet references, at a time when the dominant feeling in front of these insurmountable examples of folk architecture is simplicity and austerity. On the contrary, the world inside these churches is a non-real world, a world of imagination, where colors refer only to themselves and to nothing else real. This formalistic contrast represents for me personally also a step of change (I do not say evolution) in my relationship with the real event and its photographic transformation. Possibly for the first time, I connect the sacred with the secular and the monuments with the senses.
Plato Rivellis
Opening
